A DDS-Based Communication Protocol Featuring QoS and Caching for Unmanned Vehicles Data Exchange in Intermittently Connected Agriculture Environments

This is the authors' abstract. We don't add key points for this paper.

Modern highly automated vehicles (HAVs) are used more and more widely. One of the areas preferred for their implementation is agriculture. Quite often, several vehicles are used simultaneously on the same area, moving in unmanned mode and solving a single task. Despite preliminary planning, a high-quality solution to the task often requires adjusting and correcting the processing plan in real time. To implement it, it is necessary to have the ability to exchange messages between HAVs. Information about the location of detected obstacles, the geometry of the actually processed field area, RTK corrections, data on the remaining fertilizers and the amount of fuel in the vehicle must be delivered on time. Exchanging data in the fields is complicated by the fact that it is not always possible to implement data transmission via a mobile network due to the lack of 4G in the places where HAVs operates. Direct data exchange in real time via a radio channel is also not always possible due to terrain features that impede signal propagation. This paper presents a formal mathematical model of the DDS protocol designed for data exchange between HAVs, and its architectural implementation with application examples for solving specific agricultural problems. The protocol supports quality of service (QoS), which is especially important in low-bandwidth networks, and also provides message caching in the absence of communication with both the base station and other HAVs in the field. The article will be of interest to specialists developing robotic systems for use in agriculture and other areas, such as solving logistics problems.